Students enjoy stopping by CRU5H at Wilbur’s located inside the Funderburg Library.
Photo provided by MU
CRU5H Offers Unique Dining Options for Students on Campus
Najma El
Where do you eat when you are hungry? Do you treat your stomach, satisfying your cravings and tastebuds or do you dine on campus and dream about the meals you never quite appreciated?
What do I do? I eat on campus because food is a necessity and rarely because I am craving one of our selections.
When I eat at CRU5H, it’s once a week and only ever their build-your-own (BYO) nachos. It is the most palatable and healthiest meal to get from there because it is prepared, not cooked.
For four days I nibbled at CRU5H, trying a different item each day at the same time each day. The first day I went, at 4 p.m., I ordered the “South Paw” burger with fries. The next day it was the BYO veggie burger and tater tots followed by the BYO nachos. Lastly, I had the BYO burrito bowl. I never waited for more than five to ten minutes with five or less other customers waiting too. Every time I was called to retrieve my food, I was greeted by a warm, smiling woman and “Have a nice day.”
When I opened my burger containers, I was excited. The burger bun was golden both times, glistening even. My excitement vanished after I took my first bites. I found my burger rare in the middle and was forced to throw the meal away. The veggie burger was cold by the time I got back to my room. I nearly brushed this off until I realized that the cheese I requested did not melt.
The nachos were delicious, though! I topped them with fried tofu--as opposed to the beef/ chicken because of the poor experience with their meat earlier—as well as pico de gallo, lettuce, and a few other basic nacho ingredients. The negative part of this meal was the chip-to-topping ratio and size of tofu. I was left with a lot more chips than toppings. We are only given five or so pieces of tofu, but they are large. It would be easier to eat and spread out if they were in smaller pieces. One could also complain about the taste of tofu, but any tofu eater will tell you there will always be a blandness to it, no matter how heavily seasoned it is.
The burrito bowl is a lot like the nachos except it does not come with chips but with the choice of rice and/or beans. During this meal I realized the cheese they give is always the same. It is shredded mozzarella or shredded provolone. Whichever it is, it is a flavorless additive to the meals they provide. The rice supplied was hard, letting me know it was under- or overcooked. It did not take me long to put this meal away.
Overall, CRU5H meals are either a hit or a miss but during these four days, it was mostly a miss.